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Your Thoughts and Con
duct Make Your Face
MUM
The Man Who Posed as Jesus and as Judas.
Leonardo Da Vinci painted his “Last Supper’’ on the rear
wall of a church in Milan. Napoleon stabled his horses in the
church. The horses kicked away much of the painting.
People from all lands visit the old church each year, and as
they study the beautiful faces, now grown dim, they moralize about
Napoleon, about Da Vinci’s peasant mother, about time’s ravages
and other things.
They might well moralize over the story of Da Vinci’s great
model —if they knew it
Here is the story; it applies to every human being. You can
make it of use to yourself without going to the church in Milan.
The artist sought to express the widest possible range of char
acter study in his great painting. Laboriously, during many years,
he sought and sketched types of men.
The eleven good disciples were first painted, and then Da
Vinci began eagerly seeking for a face worthy to serve as a founda
tion for his inspired portrait of Christ.
He found a face that pleased him at last. It was that of a
young man singing in the Milan < athedral.
It was a beautiful face, breathing a spirit of truth and of
lofty idealism. The young man gladly accepted the honor offered
him. and posed for the face that, today looks out so calm and gentle
among the twelve disciples.
Only one face then remained to be painted that of .Judas, the
traitor.
Throughout the jails and through haunts of crime. Da Vinci
sought a face that should embody the hideous depravity, the utter
baseness of a spirit that could betray the gentlest of men.
Hi' found his model at last, in a prison cell in Rome. The face
was not that of an old man. But vice, evil thoughts, evil living
gave it the stamp of sunken humanity which the painter sought.
That face was painted as the face of Judas—and after the
work was done Da Vinci learned, through an accident, that the
young man who had posed for the face of Jesus was the same as he
in the prison cell who had posed for the face ot Judas.
A few years of evil living had done the work. Such a change
had been made in those few years that the painter himself, familiar
through long work with the model’s face, failed utterly to recog
nize it.
This slorv is often heard with incredulity. But why should it
be heard with incredulity?
Can vou recognize a stream of pure spring water after it has
run through the gutter of a city.?
Can you believe that the face twitching under the black mask
as the hangman moulds the scaffold was once the face of a pretty
young child, loved by its mother and seeming in every man s eyes
the embodiment of permanent innocence?
Each city magistrate, when he climbs to his police court seat,
sees a row of unhappy women before him They vary in age from
twenty to sixty. Listlessly he sentences these women- sometimes
for drunkenness, sometimes lor “crimes" in which the responsible
criminal goes free Would one of these miserable women be rec
ognized by those who knew her when her face reflected a pure
mind Not one. except, perhaps, some mother whose eyes see
through all the marks of a hard world and into the soul that can
not be destroyed
Have you ever seen a photograph of yourself made when you
were a child
You have laughed at the old picture, probably, at the old
fashioned clothing, the “best suit" with the wide black braid, or
the funny old dress.
Look again at the picture of your childhood, and look se
riously You will be a fortunate man or woman if you can look and
not miss anything.
Look carefully at the eyes and the mouth Study the expres
sion Do you find none of the frankness, freshness, truth or other
good (pialities missing?
The woman who has devoted her life to pleasure, to dismal
social vanity, to eager pursuit of worthless excitement, looks bit
terly in her glass as the years go by The peace has gone, the youth
has been replaced mH In calm, self respecting age. but by bitter
regret that stains all the expression, deadens the eyes and makes
the face look out at its owner as different from the girl of ten or
fifteen years ago as in the face of Judas from that of Jesus in the
great picture of Milan.
The moral in the story of Leonardo's model does not apply to
extreme eases alone
It applies io ihi middle aged man made hard - hard inside
and out by | > r.->ill. selfish hunting for monex
It applies to the gourmet or gourmand who has devoted his
intelligence exclusively to the service of his stomach.
Il applies to th. newspaper man who thinks that “journal
ism makes men pessimistic." but who ought to know that lack of
s'ne.er. inloroi in other men is what makes men pessimistic."
'T en vour life is ended, so tar as material accomplishment
goes, you may have mom y. you may have fame, you may be envied
by others.
But for yourself you will onlv have ONE possession reallv
important vour opinion of yourself, based on your knowledge of
" ’'on )> .\. really aimed at and really done
Yu ' ■ will tel) the story of your life at its various phases
1’ o 1 " ole storx towurd the <])d, as you look in the glass
i!ll<! '■ ■ e\. r\ line and in the whole expression whether vou have
1 ’ ' “F “ils. to the start and the possibilities that nature gave
The Atlanta Georgian
: THE DIFFERENCE
HURRAH
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THE VIEWPOINT OF AGE
By DOROTHY DIX.
AN interviewer asked Thomas
Hardy the other day why he
was so pessimistic, and the
great novelist replied:
"The cruelty of fate becomes ap
parent as people grow older. At
first one may, perhaps, escape com
ing in contact with it. but after
living long enough one realizes that
happiness is very ephemeral."
Mr Hardy is a very great genius,
but a very morbid and melancholy
one, and. it seems to me, he does
not see life from quite the angle
that we ordinary, common-place
f<>lk do. In his novels there is nev
er anything but great (lots of
gloom, and misfortunes follow fast
upon the heels of his heroes and
heroines, while for most real peo
ple there is as much Joy as sorrow,
as much feasting as starving.
Certainly, to the normal Individ
ual with the average experiences of
existence, age does not necessarily
bring pessimism. The lesson that
the years teach Us is not despair
but confidence, and the proof of
this is to be found in the fait that
old people are nearly always calm
ly cheerful and untroubled.
Youth is the time of optimism
only In the sense that it is the sea
son of bubbling hope and enthu
siasm, and over-weening self-con
fidence and self-conceit. Our pow
ers are then untried and we are
like soldiers who boast before the
battle of the prodigies of valor that
are going to be performed and the
medals that will be won -Tiler. is
nothing great that we do not figure
ourselves as doing, and we have no
doubt that the world will stop it
usual round to applaud.
Blind to Dangers.
X young man is optimistic in that
he is too Ignorant to perceive any
of the difficulties that lie tn his
way. or to take account of any of
the obstacles he must encounter.
He shuts his eyes to the dangers, he
the strength of the ene
my. Hut his cheerfulness is that
of one dr-ink on the w ine of his own
egotism, and it gives away at the
first sobering i nt c t with the stein
reality of tin struggle of life
No old man believes tn hints, ff
as a boy believes In himself, nor
does he indulge tn t> . rosy dreams
Os effortless and sure sin. . s> the
boy does He can fore. ast the dlf
Acuities to be ■n. .wintered H' 1
knows that we never aeho ve all w<
set oqt tc- do but I . r. , knows
that sincere and honest effort nevei
quite falls, rnd that, while we mat
have missed the star at which we
aimed w at- sm, to hit th. bain
door
Youth Is a Him of ail . Hialmn
THURSDAY. AUGUST 1. 1912
between the seventh Heaven of joy
ami the deepest hell of despair. It
plunges from the pinnacle of joy to
the blackest abyss of woe. because
to the young everything seems
final, every catastrophe irrevocable,
every disaster irremedial, every
disappointment a blighting sorrow.
jp. *t»»W
A
*>4 1
a
ko®
DOROTHY DIX.
It is the young who .lie of broken
hea'ts when some love affair goes
awry it is the young who commit
suicide. .No rainbow of hope spans
their tears. No philosophy gives
them courage to face misfortune.
It is only tm w ho can smile in
tin face of dis i ppoln t met; t, be
cause they hav teamed that
laughter and weeping both endure
but a night, and that if we didn't
get th< thing w w ante I there is
something else Just ~- go..d ahead.
\V. art alwavs talking about tin
joys of childll but I qu.-tion if
any middti aged person is capable
of sutler ipg as a l :l d d. ■ s 1»o
you tememle th. black disap
pointment that ti .-.I y...i whole
horizon on th. day of tin picnic
when It r.tim'.l, ami bow you t.’.
that you might as tv. 11 .|. -Ini',
there was nothing else in J. worth
living fat " Do you the fury
of ba ... . ambit, n I! -.1 tor. your
soul when you fai . d to g. t th.
-.hnoi ptiz. D-. you |. n.emb. I
.. o J ■>t 1 1 J ' ■ . . ■ Ip.im
with Sally Smith instead of you?
What could move you that way
now? Nothing.
You have learned that if it rains
today the sun will be shining to
morrow, and that picnics are messy
affairs anyway. If you didn't carry
off the first prize, you got the con
solation one. and you've lived to
see the day that you thank your
heavenly stars that you missed
Johnnie Jones and got Tommy
Smith, and so nothing fills you with
despair because you have realized
that the law of compensation never
fails. Age, that takes the keenest
edge off oui enjoyment, also dulls
our capacity for suffering It dries
up figuratively, as well as literally,
the springs of our tears.
i The Real Optimist.
Youth is likewise the time of pes
simism as regards the world, be
cause youth is the time of intoler
ance. of impatience, of merciless
hard judgment. Every young man
thinks that the country will go to
the dogs if his political candidate
is not elected, an<| that anarchy
will ensue if the theory' he advo
cates is not enforced. He believes
that everybody who does not agree
with him is a thief, a liar, and an
assassin, and that every sinner
should be brougth forthwith to jus
tice. and he is filled with gloomy
forebodings when he contemplates
the future.
It is the old man who is optimis
tic, because he has seen so many
dark prophecies unfulfilled;-he has
seen the world go on in its old
accustomed way after so many pre
dictions that the end was about to
occur, he has seen the deluge peter
out so often in a mild and benefi
cent shower. Experience has also
taught him that youth is wrong in
thinking everything black and
white, because it is mostly shaded
down into gray, with so much more
good in the bad than we believe,
and so much more bad in the good
than we expected.
Ag< is the time of optimism be
cause we have learned to trust life,
and to realize that, as the homely
old phrase puts it. there is n 6 use
in worrying because the things we
worry about in advance never
happen and most of our troubles
ar. about things that never trouble
us \\ . have seen changes that we
.Ir.aded make our greatest happi
ness. and disappointments turn into
i hob • st blessings, and so w e learn
to look f rward with confidence to
wb.it the morrow will bring us
No, ytr. Hardy Is w rong Old age
Is not the ..<son of pessimism. It
ii» .i time of <a)m philosophy, of
■ r.-ii. and hopeful confidence that
whatever is l» best It Is when
111. clock strikes twelve that we
know mo~t surely that 00. l teigns
n His heat ii and alls Well with
lib world,"
THE HOME PAPER
Elbert Hubbard
Writes on
Elimination of the *\ \ WtX,
Beggar
Copyright. 1912, International News Service.
By ELBERT HUBBARD
NOT beg and to dig I
j am ashamed," said the col
lege bred prodigal as he
asked for a hand-me-out.
If one wants to get a little
glimpse of the way the times are
changing, please make note of the
fact that the general government
in Spain has recently passed a law
making begging on the public
streets a misdemeanor
Any individual so begging is lia
ble to arrest with a fine from one
dollar to ten. For second offenses
imprisonment is provided, without
the privilege of paying a fine. Third
offenders are liable to be sent to
prison for the rest of their natural
lives
All a-down the centuries men
have been urged to give to the poor
and we have always taken the view
that poverty was a virtue and
riches a disgrace—that poor men
were good and rich men bad.
Che Only Way
Co Help People.
When wealth was only obtainable
by robbery, this view of things had
a certain basis tn fact. But wealth
obtained by rendering a service to
humanity is a thing of which to be
•Justly proud.
The parable of Dives and Laz
arus has gotten a firm grip on the
imagination. Lazarus in heaven
and Dives in hell is a particularly
pleasing proposition for the great
family of Lazarus.
The only way to help people Is to
give them a chance to help them
selves. That is all any one should
ask for—opportunity. Giving to the
poor is lending to the devil. Money
earned moans manhood. Money
gained by an appeal to sympathy is
tainted, and it stains the soul of
him who gets it.
Now, when things are coming
around to where most everybody
owns a home who really wants to,
we are getting a new focus
Italy and Spain are the homes of
beggardom. But now Spain penal
izes beggary and Italy is introduc
ing the Montesorri system of edu
cation. which means eventually
earning your living, not merely se
curing it.
«
The church has always cast a
mantle of sympathy around the
sick, the lame, the decrepit, the un
fit and the poverty-stricken.
Scientific sociology, with its
high-power lens, shows us in the
distance an ideal world. Poverty
will be done away with, disease
eliminated, crime abolished.
i The Old Orchard I
j ' By MINNA IRVING.
/JH, T know an ancient orchard
Where the trees are all in bloom;
‘ You will find it if you follow
Bee and butterfly and swallow
And the wafts of rich perfume.
There the robin builds his dwelling
On a pink and dewy spray;
When the wicket clicks behind vou
Care and pain can never find you.
Bor the world is shut away.
Gray the broken fence around it
(Painted by the suns and rains'),
But the hand of Time embosr.es
With the green of velvet mosses •
Every picket that remains.
Overhead the apple blossoms
Spread a tent of rosy snow.
Marking off the golden minutes
Eor the thrushes ami the linnets
With the flakes that fall below.
’Tis the orchard of our childhood
Where all day we used to swing.
When the winds were sweet as Imm-v
And the hours long and sunnv
hi the bridal bowers of Spring
- .— _
Self-sacrifice, abnegation, affect
ed humility are all more or less
forms of hypocrisy. Indiscriminate
giving pauperizes. Enlightened self
interest gives freedom.
We have lived in two worlds at
a time. The earth has been for
saken in order that we might gain
the good will of the skies. As Ab
dul Bana says. "Man must be con
ciliated to man—not God to man.”
God loves men who love each oth
er, simply because no other kind
are lovable.
Begging is a bad business. The
more the beggar succeeds the worse
off he is. Beggars breed beggars,
and thus make beggardom perpet
ual. Spain is right—begging must
be made disgraceful.
it would be almost unkind and
indelicate to call attention to the
fact that this was one of the chief
planks in the platform of Francisco
Ferrer. The "modern schools”
taught that beggary should be abol
ished.
Ferrer was destroyed because he
expressed himself in undiplomatic
language, and was ahead of his
time. But by his death and through
his death he convinced Spain that
he was 51 per cent right.
And so now. behold, Spain, as if
to make amends—for you can't
bring back the dead—is now en
couraging the modem school and
inaugurating many of the Ferrer
ideas.
Francisco Ferrer, having gone
swimming in the water of Lethe,
certain cowled sons of Mendax, wHn
worked his ruin, have stolen his
clothes. Aye, verily, in actual truth
they r have divided his raiment
among them, and for his vesture
they have cast lots.
Typewriter Is Greater
Than the Sword.
Thus does the world move. Gali
leo was right in that remark, "It
stands still, all right—aber nicht!”
Let us hope that Galileo, Co
lumbus, Copernicus, Bruno, John
Brown and Francisco Ferrer can
get together these days at a round
table in Valhalla and talk it over,
• and with Walt Whitman say,
"Death is just as good as life, and
a deal luckier."
That is something the world did
not know at the time when martyr
fires hovered over Smithfield Mar
tlet and when Torquemanda drove
the Jews from Spain.
The typewriter is greater than
the sword, and it is good to know
that even the Spanish hidalgos ac
knowledge it. Amen and amen!